New Recording

AlphaGal syndrome is an allergic condition caused by a tick bite that makes people allergic to a sugar called AlphaGal found in mammals except humans. It makes individuals allergic to meat, dairy, and gelatin. It's a new syndrome that is not commonly talked about, making it difficult to get tested for. The speaker was diagnosed in college after years of not knowing what was wrong. They experience flu-like symptoms, stomach pains, bloating, and vomiting. They want more awareness and education about the syndrome. In the next episode, an allergist will discuss alternative foods without meat or dairy. Hi, welcome to my first-ever podcast. This is AlphaGal with your Gal Bailey. In today's first episode I'm going to explain AlphaGal syndrome, its effects, and how I found out that I had the syndrome. I hope from my podcast viewers gain knowledge of what this syndrome is and a sense of community if they or a loved one has the syndrome and learn ways to help get through it and different ways that I mask my symptoms and different foods that I have learned to make. What is AlphaGal syndrome? AlphaGal syndrome is an allergic condition in which people are allergic to AlphaGal, a sugar found in the tissues of all mammals except humans and other primates. Individuals get this syndrome from a tick bite and it causes individuals to be allergic to any meat from an animal with a hoofed dairy and gelatin. This is important to talk about because it's a new syndrome therefore it is not commonly talked about and it is harder for individuals to get tested for. After getting diagnosed, I've educated multiple family members, friends, and other individuals about the syndrome to try and make individuals more aware. So I found out that I had AlphaGal syndrome when I was going into my freshman year of college. I am now currently going into my junior year. I began having red meat issues when I was a sophomore in high school, but no one knew what AlphaGal syndrome was so it took me almost three entire years to get diagnosed with it. After getting diagnosed, I have been able to figure out different foods that do work for me, but I cannot eat any red meat, no dairy, but I can have gelatin and then I know most individuals can't, but I don't have that. I got diagnosed by an allergist and you have to get blood drawn in order to know if you have it or not and what the severity is. My levels have gone down. I started at 10.8, and now I am at I think a 7.8. But I still struggle with the effects. So the effects of AlphaGal for everyone is different, but some get head-to-toe highs, others throw up, and some go into aphylactic shock. I personally get flu-like symptoms, so I get extremely bad pains in my stomach, and then I bloat for days and weeks depending on how the severity of if I ate it or if it just touched my food. And I also throw up majority of the time, especially if I accidentally eat it, but even if it just touches it, which is really challenging because everything is cooked in butter, but I really think that more restaurants should be educated about this due to more and more people getting diagnosed with this syndrome. But yeah, so today's podcast was just the basics about AlphaGal, and I just wanted to get all the basic knowledge known. In the next episode next week, I am going to bring an allergist who is going to speak about how they figured out this syndrome in different alternative foods. I have to love that do not include red meat or dairy. Hope to see you next week!